A large public library established an EMS in accordance with ISO 14001 requirements, which was third-party certified 10 years ago. You are performing the second surveillance audit of the third certification cycle. The audit plan included an audit of the Director as the last interview before the closing meeting.
During the interview with the Director, you audit clause 6.2 (Objectives and planning to achieve them). The dialogue is as follows:
You: Could you please tell me which environmental objectives were defined for last year and show evidence of their achievement?
Director: Yes. We had defined three objectives. As you can see from our Annual Plan, one of them was to separate our waste into four categories: paper, plastics, metals, and food. Before, we had only three (plastic and paper were disposed of together). The deadline is in six months. We developed an Action Plan to achieve this objective.
Which six of the questions would you ask related to this objective?

• A. Did you communicate it to relevant personnel?
• B. Is it measurable?
• C. Did you keep any documented information?
• D. How is it being monitored?
• E. What resources did you need?
• F. Is it consistent with the environmental policy?
• G. Was it approved by the Director?
• H. How and when will you update it, as appropriate?
• I. What happens if the completion date is not achieved?
• J. Was the Environmental Manager responsible for its establishment?

You are conducting a Stage 2 certification audit of VitalSpark, a pharmaceutical organisation manufacturing vitamins and other healthcare medicines.
In a separate area in the centre of their large site, a supplier produces oxygen supplies piped directly into the manufacturing processes of VitalSpark. They also deliver oxygen in bulk tankers to other customers. When you review the environmental aspects register, you find that the only environmental aspect recorded for this arrangement relates to the heavy goods vehicles of the supplier transiting the site.
You ask the EMS Manager about the environmental consequences to VitalSpark of this arrangement and are told that they are not significant since the supplier has its own services for water, sewage, waste and energy.
The EMS Manager tried unsuccessfully to communicate with the supplier who is located inside the VitalSpark site and outside the scope of the EMS.
After gathering more evidence, you note down findings against several clauses of ISO 14001. Determine which three of the findings stated are non-conformities.

• A. The aspects related to the use of heavy goods trucks was not identified. (Clause 6.1.2)
• B. The organisation has failed to include in the EMS scope the activities, products and services associated with suppliers and contractors performing their activities in its own site. (Clause 4.3)
• C. The internal audit programme does not include processes for control of subcontractor transport movements. The audit programme does not cover the full environmental management system. (Clause
  9.2.2)
• D. Documentation of environmental impacts was missing for the supplier of oxygen. (Clause 6.1.2)
• E. The EMS Manager had some problems communicating with the supplier by mobile phone as an interested party. No other methods of communication were employed. (Clause 7.4.3)
• F. The Environmental Manager did not visit the oxygen supplier. (Clause 7.4.3)
• G. Evidence was found to indicate that the needs of some interested parties had not been considered by the organisation. A neighbour ' s interests had not been identified. (Clause 4.2.b)
• H. The contractor's environmental policy is not consistent with the organisation's policy (Clause 5.2)

A chemical organisation has a plant at which they have to clean several vessels 4-5 times per day, and during the process, they release for 5-10 minutes some water vapor with a strong acid smell.
You are the audit team leader and are auditing the plant, as part of a second-stage initial certification audit.
When auditing the environmental aspects register, you see that the emission of that acid vapor has not been evaluated as a significant aspect. You raise a nonconformity.
At the closing meeting, only two people are present: the Health & Safety supervisor and a sales analyst, neither of whom has participated in the audit.
You: Good evening, could you please inform the managers that we are ready to start with the closing meeting?
H & S Supervisor: Good evening. We are sorry to inform you that the Sales Manager was involved in a serious car accident, and the General Manager and the Environmental Manager have had to leave urgently to attend the emergency.
Sales Analyst: They have asked us to listen to what you need to say and to sign whatever we need to sign.
However, the Environmental Manager said that he will not accept the nonconformity related to the acid smell and requests you not to include it in the audit report. Here is a note in which he explains why.
Which one of the following would be your preferred response to the final comment made by the Sales Analyst?

• A. OK. I will get in contact with my organisation to ask for instructions on what to do with this nonconformity. We will call you later as soon as we have an answer.
• B. Please tell him that this nonconformity has been reviewed with the Environmental Supervisor. I will include it in the report, making reference to his concern about it.
• C. Please tell him that I will phone him in two days and will discuss the issue. Could you please give me his mobile number?
• D. OK. Please, let me review the note. I will try to see if I can change the text of the nonconformity if necessary. Let ' s take a 10-minute break, as I would like to discuss this issue with the audit team.

CleanHavenServices is a national dry cleaning and laundry organisation with 50 shops. You are conducting an EMS surveillance audit of the Head Office and are sampling environmental performance measurements. You find that all failures to meet compliance criteria originate from five shops in the same region. Most of these failures relate to the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which exceed regulatory limits. The Environmental Manager tells you that these are the oldest shops in the organisation. He states that the cleaning equipment needs replacing, but the organisation cannot afford it now. He was instructed six months ago by Head Office to stop monitoring the air quality in the five shops.
On raising the matter with senior management, you are told that there are environmental objectives to replace the equipment in these shops over the next five years, which will eventually solve the problem.
After further auditing, you raised four nonconformities against ISO 14001.
Based on the scenario, select the four options which best describe the evidence for raising such nonconformities.

• A. The organisation failed to adequately control the laundry operations in five shops and produced greenhouse gases exceeding regulatory limits.
• B. The management failed in planning to replace obsolete equipment which damages the environment.
• C. The organisation failed to improve its environmental performance when monitoring of air quality in five shops was terminated.
• D. Shop managers were told to ventilate the laundry area and ignore the pungent odour of the Volatile Organic Compounds.
• E. The release of Volatile Organic Compounds exceeding regulatory limits did not align with the organisation ' s environmental policy to protect the environment.
• F. The organisation does not measure Volatile Organic Compound emission levels to determine whether environmental regulatory limits were being met.
• G. No action was taken when the earlier sampling of air quality showed regulatory limits being exceeded.
• H. The senior management was unaware that future regulations will likely ban the use of Volatile Organic Compounds in dry cleaning processes.